Yesterday Matt Harvey tweeted a picture of himself, in a hospital bed, giving the finger to the camera just before being wheeled in for Tommy John surgery last year. After he tweeted it he took it down because someone from the Mets told him to take it down. That’s not too big a deal, of course. I censor myself online sometimes because I have an employer and I represent them as well as myself. So does Harvey. When you do that you honor their reasonable wishes when they are expressed. No harm, no foul. It’s simple drama avoidance, and I’d be shocked if anyone at the Mets gave it a second thought after Harvey took it down.

Of course the picture itself is no big deal. Indeed, the “we wish you wouldn’t do that” from his employer notwithstanding, it was kinda funny. His mom took it, apparently. It’s like any number of family pictures floating around my and my parents’ house. I’m guessing a lot of you have pictures like that too. If you can’t joke around with your parents and/or your adult children like that, God, who wants to know you?

Remember that time Derek Jeter posted something offensive on Twitter and then decided to take down his account after the Yankees asked him to delete the post?

No? How about that time David Wright did it?

Still no? . . .The problem is that it seems to keep being Harvey who is involved in these little dustups. Not Jeter, whom Harvey said he wants to emulate. Not Wright, who is as positive a role model as New York sports has ever had.

And after that Rieber goes into serious fainting couch/pearl-clutching territory, suggesting that the picture was R-rated and actually using a shocked exclamation point when he noted that Harvey’s mother took the picture. Like this (!). When he quotes Harvey, who said that there was nothing wrong with the picture, Rieber says “Sorry, but there was.” With what I presume to be a straight face. He then uses a tattling tone to note that the middle finger pic was still up at Harvey’s Instagram account.

Newsday’s little bio of Rieber says he’s been working there since 1998. How one can cover news in New York City for 16 years and still find a way to be shocked at a grown man giving the middle finger is either a testament to how seldom Rieber leaves his house or how utterly disingenuous his shock and disgust at Harvey is here.

Either way, he should be far more embarrassed by that column than Harvey should be about anything he’s done since making the big leagues.

I agree with your posts about Harvey shooting his mother the bird, but this one is off the mark. Members of the Church of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons) due not practice plural marriage. All the reality shows that you may see on TV where plural marriage is practiced, those people are not members of the LDS church and the disclaimer at the beginning (or end) of each of those shows states that. They are members or practice teaching of an off shoot of the LDS church.

Bryce Harper to my knowledge is a member of the LDS church but he may or may not practice all the teaching of the church. Chacochicken, caffeinated beverages is not forbidden in the church. It is not advised necessarily, but then again there are a lot of people and health experts that don’t advise caffeine.

pjmitch: yes, I know all that. For what it’s worth, I have a graduate degree in theology, which to imbeciles like sewerbear apparently reads “marine biology.” Brigham Young University is one of my publishers in, uh, real life. The dimwitted burpings of my favorite catnip toy here notwithstanding, and for the sake of those others who are actually capable of learning something, let me add to your clarification that polygamy was one of the founding social conventions of the LDS from 1841 onward when Joseph Smith took his first additional wife, was reaffirmed as LDS official doctrine in 1852 by the newly formed LDS governance of Utah, and was given up, as a practical matter, in 1890 under intensifying federal pressure, including two congressional acts specifically criminalizing polygamy, to avoid the forced dissolution of the LDS and to clear a path to statehood for the territory, which the LDS wanted to call Deseret. In 1896 Utah became a state, with the proviso that the state actively prosecute polygamists. And so it ended, sort of.

Groups of Mormons, operating outside of official Church policy but claiming, as such fanatics usually do, adherence to the “true” faith of Joseph Smith, have continued to practice polygamy regardless to the present day. I suppose Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of the Latterday Saints would be the most well known example.

Now, you will notice that the initial post that drew your response was itself a response to chacochicken’s “outlaw Mormon thing” comment. My comment was a parodical response to his, and clearly chacochicken was as aware, and referred to, ostracized polygamist sects by his comment in the first place.

I doubt seriously if sewerbear, who has succeeded gloriously in disclosing his ignorance (as if such were necessary) and making a fool of himself again, has learned anything from this – he never does – but I hope you do understand where chacochicken and I were coming from.

I think that is the point, how times have changed and not necessarily for the good. Now apparently showing disrespect for your mother and showing it to the world is supposed to be acceptable behavior that we should applaud and enjoy.

It’s adorable that you think that Matt Harvey’s mother took a picture of him flipping the bird at her (as opposed to the camera) and gave it to him to share with the world if she actually gave two flying bananas about it.

I suppose comparing yourself to Matt Harvey could be considered “having fun”. But, unfortunately for Craig, “flipping the bird” to your mother in family photos is where that comparison ends. I say this considering that Craig cannot throw 100 mph and despite his inferences that he “gets out” more then certain sanctimonious reporters, I can confidently assume that Craig does not “get out” where Harvey “gets out”. You get me?

In fact, OG, I was going to conjecture that the one thing that might be worse than either Rieber’s or CC’s self-righteousness (and make no mistake about it, his thin skinned entry into this comments section makes pretty clear that that’s what it was, my dumbness and sententiousness notwithstanding) would be my bothering to comment about it. But you beat me to it!

Besides, thanks to you and ditto65, I now *know* what’s even worse than any of this: a bunch of old ponces like us bothering to pick apart any of this. That includes Rieber, CC, me, you, and especially ditto65’s elaboration of “what this site is about,” as if it’s written on a charter somewhere, but customized for this very thread.

This is one of the circles of hell, right? Maybe not, but our folly is at least as pathetic as the characters in a Celine novel, or a Bosch painting.

Truth be told, I love all of it.

ditto65 - Apr 23, 2014 at 9:51 AM

You do understand what this site is about, right? Praise when appropriate, snark and satire when the opposite of praise is the reward.

So Craig, when is ESPN going to show an unblurred version of the picture? And no, I do not curse around my parents, though I’ve also partied with fellow college students who passed the bong to their parents, so to each his own.

Yes Rieber is over reacting, but you’re over reacting to his over reaction.

There isn’t a person on this earth that is not judgmental. That’s what humans do. What Harvey did was totally harmless. That’s my judgment. If sdelmonte is offended then so be it. People that complain about others being judgmental are typically the most judgmental of all.

paperlions - Apr 23, 2014 at 10:57 AM

There are many types of judgement, being disappointed in someone because their conduct does not conform to your personal sense of morality is being petty.

….and your comment about people complaining about other’s being judgmental being the most judgmental of all is complete BS. It is the same lame and baseless aspersion used to explain away opinions without offering any factual basis.

chc4 - Apr 23, 2014 at 11:05 AM

Stop judging. So now some judging is okay as in the kind you do? Laughable. You will continue to move the goalposts in order to frame your point even though it makes no sense.

happytwinsfan - Apr 23, 2014 at 11:31 AM

being judgmental about people being judgmental about people being judgmental is the worst of all. unless…

babyfarkmcgeezax - Apr 23, 2014 at 12:11 PM

chc4, don’t worry, it’s another in long list of unwritten rules Craig’s minions expect everyone to follow. You will be scorned and targeted with self-righteous snark if you don’t follow their rules and opinions to a T.

stex52 - Apr 23, 2014 at 10:35 AM

Sdel, I’m not the biggest fan of that behavior randomly in public. But if his mother is not offended and thinks it’s funny, I’m okay with it. I don’t go to his postings anyway.

Is there some “unwritten rule” of journalism that says a sports writer can’t share his opinion on the actions of pro athletes? Sports writers seem to be constantly breaking “unwritten rules” in Craig’s mind. Rest easy, everybody; the Sheriff of Unwritten Sports Writing Rules – the Brian McCann of sports blogging – is on the case.

I’m not “enforcing” anything — kind of hard to do that as a blog commenter — merely pointing out your obtuseness with regard to nuance. I don’t know or care if this shortcoming affects your life outside of HBT, but it doesn’t seem to detract from proper spelling and grammar, so kudos to you.

Ooooh, Craig pulling a Gerrit Cole and getting all huffy at someone disrespecting the unwritten rule that everyone who doesn’t share his opinions are automatically ill-informed! How adorable. Well I see that and raise you a cyber chucked helmet!

22yearsagotoday - Apr 25, 2014 at 8:19 PM

baby: you lost before it even started.

jwbiii - Apr 23, 2014 at 9:54 AM

David Wright is an awesome role model. I wish I could have this much fun when buying a friend a drink.

That’s the liberal way. Everything offends them that doesn’t agree with them. They are the least tolerant, to certainly preach tolerance.

babyfarkmcgeezax - Apr 23, 2014 at 12:30 PM

As a liberal myself I object to your generalization. However, even if I agree with most of their views, I find self-important, hypocritical, snark-spewing, pat-myself-on-the-backtivists like Craig to be just as insufferable and annoying as many of the blathering idiots on the right.

Grown men arguing over grown men acting like kids. Grown men who play a kids game. Don’t know where I’m going when I leave here but ain’t coming back to read “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”

Be like Jeter. Yep, instead of flipping the bird in a picture that your mother could have deleted from the camera if she was offended, pass out parting gifts with an autographed baseball to the girl you humped last night. That would class up Harvey’s act.